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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28161390">The Eye of the Beholder</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/vcg73/pseuds/vcg73'>vcg73</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Helen's Holidays [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Glee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Christmas Lights, Gen, Holidays, Hudmel Family</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 18:22:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,899</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28161390</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/vcg73/pseuds/vcg73</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurt and Finn discover that they have very different tastes in holiday decorating.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Helen's Holidays [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2031145</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Eye of the Beholder</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kurt stepped out of his Navigator, closed his eyes tightly and shook his head. He hoped that when he opened them again, the vision might have vanished, but sadly it was still there when he dared to look again. He resisted the urge to reach down and grab his sunglasses out of the car. With Kurt’s dad unable to go climbing ladders this Christmas due to his recent heart attack, Finn had volunteered to deck the rooftop and exterior walls with Christmas lights. They weren’t even done yet but from the already retina-scarring look of things, he had purchased every colored light bulb and tacky plastic decoration in Allen County.</p><p>Shaking his head in defeat, Kurt trudged inside the house, wincing when two leering plastic Santa Claus’s detected his motion across the porch and bellowed “Ho, Ho, Ho!” in stereo. God, he hoped he could talk his friends into meeting at someone else’s home for their planned holiday gatherings.</p><p>He paused with his hand on the doorknob.</p><p>Normally, decorating the house was something Kurt helped with, but having just come home for the long weekend from Dalton, he had not been here to do his share, so it wasn’t a huge surprise that American Electrical was going to receive a huge gift in the form of the Hummel-Hudson electric bill. Ever since that terrible winter after his mother died, Kurt’s father and “restraint” had never been in the same time-zone when it came to decorating for the holidays. Dad had a habit of over-compensating for slights - real or imagined - towards those he loved, and forgetting about his recently bereaved little boy’s need for a Merry Christmas when Kurt was eight had had a deep and lasting effect on Burt that only exacerbated his natural tendency towards eye-popping holiday decor.</p><p>This year, between feeling enormous guilt for having allowed Kurt’s bullying to reach such severe levels that he had been forced to move away and board at a new school in a different town, and his joy over having a newly blended family to enjoy the holidays with, there had been no stopping Burt Hummel.</p><p>Finn wouldn’t have even tried to exercise restraint. He and his step-father were two peas in a pod when it came to things like this. Hell, Finn had probably gone along to Home Depot to push one of those absurdly huge trolley carts, pointing and pleading for every shiny decoration like a kindergartner in a toy store.</p><p>After all, how could Finn know that the two Hummel men bickering over decorations was as much of a holiday tradition as gift giving?</p><p>Kurt had always fought for a tasteful theme, pulling out samples from fashion magazines and celebrity gatherings, showing lovely complementary colors and neat symmetrical decorations. Pyramids of pine festooned in well placed white lights and red and gold ornaments, mantle-pieces with perfectly swathed pine boughs decorated in sprigs of holly, a lightly but beautifully arranged sprinkling of lights across the exterior of the house. Burt championed variety and bright colors in everything. Trees full of mismatched ornaments, gigantic colored lights mixed with twinkle bulbs, fake snow on real pine boughs, odd little Santa and reindeer figurines filling every surface. He even had one of those ridiculous singing fish with a Santa hat on its scaly head. Dad really believed in putting the Chaos back in Christmas.</p><p>They had both lost as many battles as they won. For every giant plastic snowman decorating the lawn, there would be some nicely bedazzled angel or snowman decorating the tables inside. It had taken a few years to reach a compromise. If Kurt neatly decorated the inside of the house, Burt went crazy on the outside. If the eaves, lawn and rooftops were done up in tasteful white lights and the walk lit by a half dozen miniature Victorian lamps, the inside walls were papered in tacky dollar-store pictures and a few samples of Kurt’s childhood artwork.</p><p>With the Hudsons added in, who knew what might be waiting?</p><p>Remembering Finn’s text message this morning: ‘Wait’ll u c the house! It’s awesome!’, Kurt braced himself before opening the door. His heart sank. Just as he had feared, his personal influence had been utterly overwhelmed in his absence. He had hoped that Carole might have exerted better taste, but it was clear that the queen of acid-wash had gone along with the “fun”, letting her husband and son have free rein.</p><p>The tree in the corner was huge, lopsided, and had random branches sticking out in odd directions. It was covered in a combined mismatch of family ornaments from both sides, enough strings of brightly colored bulbs to choke the poor evergreen into total submission, and so much tacky silver garland and tinsel that Kurt wasn’t even sure why they had bothered with the ornaments.</p><p>The walls had been so thoroughly wallpapered with cheery holiday-themed pictures that one could barely tell what color the paint beneath them was, and putting anything down on a table surface was going to be tricky for the next few days, given the number of knick-knacks that covered them.</p><p>It was all so hideously cheerful that Kurt wanted to cry.</p><p>“Merry Christmas!” three happy voices chorused, and Kurt dropped the small suitcase he had been clutching to receive the enthusiastic hugs of his family as they welcomed him inside.</p><p>He smiled, delighted to see them all, then froze as he got a good look at Finn. “Oh my god,” he whispered in horror. “Tell me you didn't really let Rachel brainwash you into wearing a giant blue reindeer sweater.”</p><p>“I got him that,” Carole said, looking a little hurt.</p><p>“Oh,” he said, manufacturing a stiff smile. “Sorry, it’s very, um … <em>festive</em>.”</p><p>Apparently that was good enough for Carole, whose cheer was instantly restored. “I wanted to get you one too, but your dad said you weren’t really big on sweaters.”</p><p>Flashing his father a grateful look, which Burt returned with a smirk of understanding, he agreed, “No, not especially.”</p><p>“How was the drive down? You must be nearly frozen! The temperature dropped this morning and with all that overnight snow, I was afraid you’d be held up. Are you hungry? We have some ham and turkey, a veggie tray I bought your father, crackers and cheese, and a whole pan full of Christmas cookies in the kitchen.”</p><p>“Those she didn’t make for me,” Burt cut in, shaking his head sadly. Then his eyes twinkled. “But I’ve managed to sneak a few when she wasn’t looking anyway.”</p><p>Kurt rolled his eyes. “Dad!”</p><p>“What?” he said with a smug smile.</p><p>“You aren’t supposed to be eating a lot of sweets, you know that,” he scolded, taking off his coat and handing it and his scarf into Finn’s openly offering hand to be put away. “Thanks.”</p><p>Burt held up his hands. “Hey, I am 100% on Santa’s good-boy list this year. A little sugar cookie here and there isn’t going to hurt me.”</p><p>“He really has been doing good,” Finn offered, returning and handing his new brother a candy-cane. “Here. Burt said you really like these so I got you a box.”</p><p>Surprised, Kurt accepted. “Thanks, Finn.”</p><p>“I wouldn’t eat that until after you’ve had your lunch,” Carole warned, taking Kurt by the arm and leading him into the kitchen.</p><p>There was no protest at all from her starving step-son, who tucked happily into a plateful of food. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes when he realized that even the kitchen had not escaped the mad decorating spree. Every towel, dishcloth, burner cover, and refrigerator magnet had been replaced with Christmas themed versions. So maybe expecting Carole to show restraint had been too much to hope for all along.</p><p>Oddly, though, as the family sat around the kitchen table, talking and laughing and catching up, all of them acting as if Kurt had been away for years rather than a couple of months, he found the look of the house growing on him.</p><p>“Those two Santas on the porch scared the crap out of me,” he mentioned after a while. “You guys really went all out.”</p><p>Finn and his mother beamed, taking his comments for praise. His father knew better, but as he and Kurt exchanged a shrug - the action telling Kurt that his dad not only understood but actually sympathized a bit with his horror over the relentless explosion of cheer - Kurt found that he really didn’t mind.</p><p>“Next year it'll be your turn. We’ll hold off and let you decorate the place your way,” Burt promised. “I told Carole that you like Christmas decorations to be a little more artsy, but Finn's always wanted a big house to decorate so we kinda just let him at it.”</p><p>Well, that explained a lot. However, as Finn broke in babbling excitedly about the Santa and Reindeer up on the roof, which were apparently animatronic and would light up, bob up and down, and play a recording of Santa calling the animals’ names when activated, Kurt just smiled.</p><p>It wasn’t anything like what he would have chosen, but after weeks at Dalton Academy, wearing bland uniforms in the same drab shades every day, walking beautiful but rigidly identical hallways, studying in sumptuous but painfully orderly common rooms, Kurt found that he was no longer as bothered by the colorful riot of decoration as he had been initially.</p><p>“When it gets dark, can I flip the switch to turn everything on?” he said, surprising his dad, who grinned and gave Kurt a firm squeeze of the shoulders, a thank you in the form of quick stealth-hug that only the two of them would understand.</p><p>“Sure!” Finn said happily. “And you can hang the last few ornaments on the tree. We saved some of them, and a few prime spots on the tree, for when you came home.”</p><p>Both touched by the gesture, and a bit startled to realize that there might actually be branch space somewhere on the overstuffed flora, Kurt grinned. “Really? Which ones?”</p><p>“Your special perfume bottle, of course,” Burt said. “The crystal angels that your mom had. The silver music note. All your favorites!”</p><p>Suddenly much happier, Kurt popped a final cookie in his mouth and stood up, dusting bits of colored sugar off his hands. “Let’s go see. I was afraid you hadn’t left me anything to do and I was feeling left out.”</p><p>“No way, dude!” Finn said, looping a long arm around his shoulders in brotherly camaraderie. “Christmas is for family. No way I’d leave out my new bro.”</p><p>Kurt smiled, daring to give Finn a hug around his waist. Finn was right. Christmas, and all the things that went with it, good, bad, and eye-wateringly ugly, <em>were</em> for family. Their family was unique, eclectic, a little discordant and chaotic at times, and maybe a bit awkward when looked at from the outside. From the inside, however, the pieces were somehow growing and changing to fit perfectly together.</p><p>Maybe it was time he started to enjoy everything that went with that. “Snowman after we finish decorating?”</p><p>“Dude, you read my mind!” Finn agreed happily. “And by the time we’re done it should be dark enough to turn on the lights.”</p><p>Making a mental note to fetch his sunglasses from the car, Kurt just smiled and agreed that it would indeed.</p><p>THE END</p>
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